Crude Markings
by blossomtoxin
Summary: Sarah has an old marking from her run through the Labyrinth and it begins to hurt her - little does she know that it will lead her back to the man who she's tried so hard to forget for so many years...
1. Chapter 1

The meaning of mirrors had changed for Sarah after she had taken a trip through the Labyrinth. As she examined herself, she was often prone to asking: If she could see herself in them, who else was using them to see her?

She had one idea - but she had taken pains to remove that part of her memory completely from her thoughts.

A painful process, and she wasn't sure even then that she had succeeded, because there were times when she caught him sliding through her mind like gossamer strands. He was hard to fix at any one point, but usually the mere irritation of thinking about him made her take pause and push him forcefully from her thoughts.

It was one such instance that morning that brought him to mind - her fingertips seeking out a strange marking just above her hip bone. She could never remember how she had gotten the marking, only that one day in the past it had been there. It was stinging that morning, and she hissed through her teeth as she leaned down to get a better look at it -standing up on her tip toes to try and look at it in the bathroom mirror. She saw that it was bleeding, as if someone had taken a fresh knife to it - ringing the edges of it in a faint red.

The marking itself looked to be an eye; oblong in shape with a circle right in the middle. It was crude, but small. She was amazed that such a small marking could sting so much, so she stopped poking at it and turned to twist the shower knob with a few small squeaks and the sudden hiss of hot water through the shower head. She stripped out of her pajamas and stepped in, the hot water making the marking burn with a white hot pain anew.

"Ow, ow! Fuck ow!," She hissed at herself.

She washed the marking and decided that she wouldn't go to the doctor - whatever it was she'd had it for awhile and the scarring looked like she'd allowed someone to take a knife to her. She wasn't interested in answering those questions. Finishing up her shower routine, she got dressed and was out the door for work.

She lived in New York, a perfect place for an illustrator to be. She was a children's book illustrator, and it had proven to be pretty lucrative for her. She had skill in drawing the childish sort of goblins and creatures she'd encountered when she had been a teenager, and it never failed to become popular with the kids - though she had updated her style just a bit.

Sarah was able to walk to work, a small office that published a series of children's novels that started her as a freelance illustrator and then later hired her on at a salary. It was enough to keep herself upright, and she was more than happy doing what she was doing. She was able to wear jeans and keep her hobbies open, it definitely wasn't the type of job that sucked up all of her time, though she did work hard at it and oftentimes her coworkers had to tell her it was time to go home.

Stopping at one of the coffee vendors that was on her way to work, she ordered a small coffee and a danish - but her thoughts were still on the stinging mark that was throbbing dully at her hip. She had bandaged it up but it hadn't helped much, and she was so out of it that she didn't hear Candice trying to get her attention. She reached over the counter and grabbed the coffee and the bag, and Candice reached out to tap her.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Sarah exclaimed, turning to glance at her coworker.

"Hey, you're really out of it," Candice smirked and ordered a latte. "Everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm alright. Guess I didn't get enough sleep last night,"

"Yeah? Was it something interesting?" Candice gave her a little wink wink, nudge nudge.

Sarah couldn't help but roll her eyes. "No, I woke up with this weird pain in my hip."

"Oh," Candice's playful look quickly turned to one of concern. "Maybe you should skip work today and get over to the doctor?"

"No, I'm alright. It's already stopped," Sarah wasn't a very good liar, and Candice paused to look her up and down before shrugging it off.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't ever do anything to help you," Candice laughed as they walked alongside each other, bumping against Sarah's arm playfully before taking a drink from the straw of her iced latte.

They walked with the usual bit of chit-chat towards the building. Sarah liked Candice and they'd gotten drinks together more than once, but she wasn't about to tell her about the weird mark that was currently causing her to stand straight up each time her jeans brushed against the bandaging. Sarah said goodbye to her as they had to part ways, and she finished the rest of walk to her desk a little stiffly. And with that, she promptly fell asleep, sprawled out over her work.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

/Sarah.../

An echo of that voice she hadn't heard in quite awhile.

/Sarah!/

She woke up with a start, gulping air quickly. She was dehydrated, she knew that much right off the bat. Attempting to sit up, her head felt as if it was tugged back towards the pillow by some unknown force, and it was throbbing dully.

/What in the hell?/

The sharp pain on her thigh had dulled considerably, and it felt like the pain was gone altogether until she moved her body just a bit and was met with resistance.

"Ow," She muttered, her hand ghosting over the area where she knew the marking was.

"Hey kid, maybe you ought to stay still,"

She managed to get her eyes open to find that she wasn't where she was expecting she'd be - she was in a hospital room.

"Dad?"

He stood up from his curled up position in the chair and handed her a cup full of ice chips.

"Thanks," Her voice came out hoarse and somewhat unrecognizable, even to herself. "What am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

"Well, I got a call from Candice. She said she found you asleep on the floor of your office and that she couldn't get you to wake up. She said you had bled straight through to your jeans,"

"What?"

"She couldn't get you to wake up so she called 911 and here we are," He looked confused and concerned.

"I'm really fine," She said, stubbornly.

"Stubborn as ever." Her dad said, chuckling. "Thing is kid, I don't think you are. Sounds like you've got some sort of infection," His eyes moved over her hip bone.

"I didn't do it to myself," She said quickly, trying to cover up the overall strangeness of the mark.

Her dad was silent for a few moments, leaning back into his chair. "I believe you. But I think you ought to get some rest,"

"Is mom coming?"

"She'll be here tomorrow, with Toby,"

"That's really not-"

"Shhh, Sarah." He stood up, taking the ice chips she'd been sucking on and setting them aside, tucking her in tightly. "Get some sleep."

The pain on her hip increased little by little, hour by hour, until it woke her up from muggy dreams about dark green forests and strange little men. She shifted in the bed, her eyes opening a little easier this time. Looking around the room she found it was strangely devoid of life. Her dad wasn't in the chair, and she couldn't find any evidence that he ever had been. Had she dreamed the entire scene? In fact, the entire hallway seemed devoid of noise, there wasn't any chatter of humans or beeping from machines except for her own.

"Hello?"

Glancing down at the various wires and IVs coming out of her arms, she began removing them one by one. She pulled the IV gently out of her arm and held a bit of the sheet against the puncture until it stopped bleeding. Sarah tried not to hurry, but she was finding that the longer the silence ticked on, the more she felt she needed to get the hell out of the hospital. Where was everyone?

She slid out of the bed and found she was a little wobbly on her feet, and the closer she got to the seemingly empty hallway the more the marking on her hip hurt. She grabbed the area with both hands, trying to keep the pain at bay while she shakily stepped into the hallway to find that it was quite deserted.

"Dad?" She tried lamely, not liking the sound of her own shaky voice.

There was no reply. Turning the corner she caught sight of the nurses station, which was completely empty. /Okay, Sarah - this is getting weirder and weirder./

Her first thought was to turn back to the room and go back to sleep, maybe she would wake up where she was actually supposed to be instead of this alternate hospital that didn't have anyone in it. Her sneaking suspicion was that she was awake and it wouldn't help, and it filled her with a sort of unspeakable dread. It was then that the scratching noises started, the sort of sound that twigs snapping or twisting against one another made. It made her freeze, and she felt the hairs on her bare arms stand up on end.

/Run!/

/RUN!/

His voice was insistent in her ears and it was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over her head. It caused her to move, the pain in her hip now going largely ignored as her adrenaline forced her to run. She could hear the pounding of her own feet against the linoleum and her blood was thudding almost painfully in her ears. Whatever headache she'd had earlier had gotten about twenty times worse in the last five minutes. Sarah didn't know where she was running to - but it seemed as though someone was pulling her in whatever direction her body was angled to run. The fluorescent lights were flicking on and off like she was in a bad horror movie.

/Am I in a bad horror movie?/

/Sarah,/ The voice in her head warned, /Keep running./

The response almost forced her to a stop, causing her to stumble in a confused fashion as she took another look around the empty corridor. She saw nothing - but she did catch a glimpse of her reflection in the shiny floor. She looked like a crazy person, though that wasn't exactly a stretch. She was starting to feel like one too.

The front door of the hospital was a blessing when it came into view, though it had required going down a very creepy set of stairs in order to get out of the building. The lights were beginning to turn off entirely, and it was almost as if she was having some sort of bad fever dream. She was holding out the hope that she would wake up in the hospital bed with her dad pretzeled up in the chair beside her, asleep, but the longer she ran the more she began to doubt she would wake up. When she opened the door it was freezing, and a blast of chilled rain began slicing at her bare skin. She hadn't even thought to account for the weather and all she could do then was go barefoot, out into the storm. She was met with miles and miles of forest as she rounded the parking lot. Sarah could swear that she had never seen this copse of trees before, which lead her to believe that it was still a dream. Sliding between two tall trees she found some respite from the rain, but her feet were met with the unyielding chill of wet soil covered up in wet, dying leaves.

"Is anyone out there?"

Wrapping her arms around herself she began to shiver, hearing her teeth chatter in the back of her mouth.

"It's so cold."

/Sarah, follow the path./

The voice caused her hair to stand on end again, but not because she was overly frightful - but because whomever was in her head was working warm tendrils of warmth along her body, helping her stiff muscles to release. She started along at a slow jog which quickened as she began hearing that familiar sound of twigs snapping, crunching and squeaking. Breaking out into a fast run, she became less aware of the branches snapping against her arms and face, and the cuts that were likely being torn in her skin. Forced to stop and change directions, the rain became so bad that she could hardly see - she was merely a being propelled by some sort of inexplicable force. Repelled by it, more like - Sarah had no desire to meet whatever had followed her into the woods.

Eventually, the trees became so thick that they boxed her into a circle, and the sounds of snapping twigs drew ever nearer, followed by an almost indistinct buzzing.

"Come on, come on!" She shouted as she tried to squeeze through the trees, each moment bringing the shifting dark mass closer and closer to her. "Come on Sarah," She groaned, finally squeezing all the way through the thick copse of trees - narrowly avoiding seeing whatever it was that was hunting her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sarah broke through into sunlight, burning hot and dry on her face. She squinted against the sudden onslaught to her eyes, lifting her arm to try and shield them. It was a sudden, shocking change from the wind and rain. It gave her a moment to look down and see the kind of shape she was in - a frown crossing over her face as she realized that the hospital gown had barely made it, and rivulets of pinkish water slid down her pale thighs and arms. She had to guess that she was probably bleeding, though the minute her fingertips ghost over scratches and punctures they began to sting. The mark had faded, no longer the sharp, throbbing pain that had been so present in her hip the last day.

"Great," She muttered.

Sarah was so fixated on her scratches and bruises that she hadn't looked up long enough to realize where she was. When her vision did clear and she was able to get a look, a hard lump settled in her throat which she woefully attempted to swallow.

_It can't be..._

Taking a few hesitant steps forward her bare feet kicked up some of the glittering soil, tossing it upwards towards the heaven in a fine cloud of dust.

"Okay, I'm definitely not awake," She muttered.

_ You most certainly are. _

The familiar voice filled her head with it's sudden silkiness, and she glanced around hoping that she might catch a glimpse of it's owner. Nope, it was pretty clear she was just going completely insane.

"Where are you?"

_You'll have to come find me. Your legs still work, don't they?_

She rolled her eyes and decided it would be better not to reply. She didn't get much time to respond, anyway, as her attention was drawn towards noises in the direction of the courtyard where she had first met Hoggle. He was nowhere to be found - instead replaced by a grouping of four or five men and women. They were clad in skeletal armor that was colored black, shimmering in some places and dull in others. They were not the incompetent goblin army that Sarah had grown used to - in fact; these tall, willowy beings inspired a sort of terror in her. They certainly didn't look human, and many of them had red eyes that resembled cracked garnet with no pupil to be seen.

Sarah ducked behind a nearby tree as one of them spotted her, but she realized the movement had been too little, too late. They knew she was there. She broke out into a fast run in the other direction - but the riders mounted black creatures that resembled lizards and caught her in stride. The lizards had tough black hide and red eyes and nostrils. They might have been dragons - a belief confirmed by the smoke she occasionally saw billowing from their nostrils. She felt the vice-like grip of one of the riders as she was tugged atop the beast and kept still from struggling.

"Stop it, you're hurting me!" She screeched, attempting to bite down on an armored hand. It had little effect, just causing the creature to tighten his grip on her.

The riders were off quickly, their beasts making quick work of the Labyrinth's walls. They scuttled up them with ease, unperturbed by the twisty-turny magic of the place. The creatures had the ability to run the entirety of it in less than a half hour. Sarah found that the place was a ghost town, lacking any of it's previous occupants. All of the guards, beasts and goblins appeared to be gone. The flora and fauna prevailed, giving the place a beautiful sort of melancholy. Sarah caught glimpses of deserted corridors covered with pink and red flowers and empty places that were so dark she could hardly make anything out. Where was everyone? Who were these men? They certainly weren't Jareth's men; it didn't even feel like his Labyrinth any longer.

When they reached the Castle, it was just as empty as the rest of the place. Someone had done some redecorating, as the flowers were prevalent here too - twisting and turning around the columns and granite. It was beautiful, but the lack of anything familiar disquieted Sarah more than she had guessed it would. The loose chickens, hay and goblins were all but gone, and what was left behind might have been called an entirely respectable castle.

She was lead into the front hallway and in a direction she wasn't familiar with. She had seen very little of place the last time she had been there. The size of it was surprising and the walk was painful, each step sending a shock into that marking which had made itself apparent again. She limped as quickly as she could, the riders forcing her along quickly until they came to what looked to be a throne room. She examined the fine fabrics and decorations until her eyes rested at the figurehead - his lanky form sprawled haphazardly in the overly large chair that he probably called his 'throne'. Her heart felt like it was caught up in her wind-pipe and the sensation got worse each step she took towards him. The rider who grasped her shoved her in the direction of the man and she nearly fell. Instead, she only stumbled, managing to catch herself before she went akimbo on the carpet and showed the entire room just how little she was wearing.

The man in the chair was not Jareth. He looked remarkably like Jareth, but Sarah knew the Goblin King too well to mistake it. The man in the chair had cruel eyes and the same shape of face, but his hair was a silvery color - and it fell sleek around his face. One side of it had been shaved; leaving a sort of fuzz against his scalp. He was beautiful in the same ethereal way that Jareth was, but he seemed younger somehow.

"Well, well," He leaned forward in his chair, Jareth's necklace falling forward around his neck. "You are quite beautiful even if you are getting old."

"Old?" She spurted out. She didn't like that twenty-five was really THAT old. "Who are you?" She asked, stubbornly.

He leaned back, tilted his head back, and let out a familiar bark of laughter. He was certainly related to Jareth, somehow. Instead of responding he zeroed in on her, regarding her with yellow eyes.

"Where's Jareth?"

"Take her away and clean her up, will you? If she wants to see him so badly, you can throw her in with him," He waved his hand flippantly, as if she was no longer important enough to talk to.

Sarah was grabbed again and she struggled against the grip, trying to get the riders to leave her be.

"Who? Who are you talking about? Why am I here!" Her shout echoed through the hallway.

She was dragged, literally kicking and screaming, from the hall.

The riders began talking in a language she didn't understand, laughing at her and tossing her into a room that bore a single tub filled with cold water.

"Wash!" One of them shouted, his voice heavily accented.

Stepping awkwardly into the room, she glanced around and found that a pair of clothing was laid out for her. The cold water stung when she got into it, but not as much as the hot water might have. It made her realize all the bruises and cuts anew. She washed as quickly and as best as she could. She dressed in the clothing slowly, each movement she made causing the marking to sting. The clothes were beautiful; the pants a soft leather embroidered with silvery leaves and the shirt a silver mesh of what appeared to be lace but felt much more like spider webs - over which a bodice made of the same leather was laced and tied. There was a pair of tall boots and warm socks set out for her, and she sat down and tugged them on over the leather. She felt almost like the Goblin King herself - except that her trousers weren't so obscenely tight.

It was well after nightfall when the riders came back for her. She had crept out into the hallway, thinking that she might escape - but there was a silent and stoic guard posted at either end of the hallway with sharp, dangerous knives glittering among their armor. The room that they had put her in was far too high up to try and climb down, especially in the dark...and even if she did get free, where would she go? She wasn't sure she could go back to whatever that thing was that had been hunting her in the woods.

There was only a single rider, but he was strong enough to keep her at bay, and she found she was too exhausted to struggle. It didn't seem like they intended to feed her, and she hadn't been able to sleep at all.

She was lead down many corridors, each twisting this way and that. She began to suspect that the guard was doing it on purpose so that she couldn't keep track of where they were headed or how to get back. They went down, down and down until the guard was forced to light up a lantern - filling it with a ghostly white light that penetrated the darkness.

"It's a dungeon," She gasped.

The rider completely ignored her. They rounded a corner and came upon a large cell that actually looked comfortably furnished. There was a fire burning, a bed, various bookshelves and a small table that contained a couple of candle-sticks. The guard unlocked the iron bars and shoved her inward before she realized what was happening, and she forced her body against the bars, shouting at the guard.

"What are you doing? You can't leave me in here!" She rattled the bars a few times with her hands - but her exhaustion made the activity useless.

"You won't get out that way,"

The voice was so familiar it forced her to turn in shock.

He came from the shadows, like he had so many times before. He looked unwell, much like he had the last time they had met; when he had offered her her dreams and she had refused him. He was different though she couldn't place her finger on what exactly it was. His flare for drama was lacking, he was dressed in a simple white shirt that cut a deep vee down his chest and a pair of leather trousers that were much like her own. His eyes had deep circles beneath them and his pallor was almost alarming. Around his wrists and ankles were shackles that bit into his skin furiously. She could see the irritated, raw flesh beneath.

"Jareth," She breathed. She thought it was the first breath of air she'd taken in minutes.

**"Sarah."**

* * *

I'm trying to make these chapters a lot longer. I don't know how I'm doing so far.

Reviews and follows are much appreciated and feedback/encouragement definitely helps if you'd like me to keep going!


	4. Chapter 4

The way he said her name brought a shiver down her spine - the same girlhood reaction she had to the man who had whisked her brother away all those years ago. Except...except he was different, somehow. He had a sharper edge - his eyes were brilliantly strange and his hair was no longer sticking up in a manner of odd angles. He had cut it, or someone had, and now it sat at his shoulders...a shimmering sheen of white gold.

He looked her up and down, though she could not tell if the hard glint in his eyes was interest or disinterest. He drew nearer, always uncomfortably within her sphere of personal space, though he didn't touch her. He seemed like a wounded animal; coming out into the light for a scrap of kindness and a heel of bread. He smelled of iron and blood, so strongly that Sarah had to turn her head to give her nose a reprieve. It caused Jareth to laugh, a dark chuckle bubbling up from the depths of his chest.

"I don't blame you, I'm sure I smell as if I've been in a cellar for months,"

"Well, have you?"

"I see you haven't lost your penchant for asking stupid questions."

"I see you haven't lost your ability to be a sarcastic asshole." She bit back, though the sudden passion of it surprised her. She bit her lower lip, drawing a bit of her own blood. "What are you doing down here?"

"I'm on vacation." He sniped back, drawing back into the shadows with a look of painted indifference. "I should be asking you what you're doing down here. It's much more interesting a story."

Sarah was surprised, and didn't do well at hiding it. "You mean you didn't bring me here?"

Jareth threw up his iron-clad wrists in a gesture of defiance and defeat. "It's completely beyond my control." He seemed amused by the fact, but that might have been his current health situation. He even laughed, a bit giddily.

Sarah found herself at a loss for words, which she thought was even unusual for her. She turned away from the giddy goblin king and glanced at the guard stationed near the cell. They certainly weren't his guards, the small little creatures that were more effective at causing mischief than any real harm. These guards were unsettling and inhuman - black and red eyes peering out from faces that were heavily covered in black cloths and masks.

She turned back towards Jareth, who had sat himself back down atop the rough spun cot. His head was lolling, and he didn't look as though he was doing too well. It wasn't exactly the reunion she had planned, but she seemed to make the connection that she needed to get those iron cuffs off of him. They seemed to be giving him some sort of poisoning, and she knew enough of lore to guess that it was the iron. How in the hell was she supposed to get them out of this situation?

Sarah didn't know what came over her right then, but she pressed herself up against the bars as tightly as possible. She began whispering at the guard. "Hey," She tried, before her noise level increased. Finally, the guard turned to look at her. What was initially irritation melted away into something else entirely. Sarah knew it once she locked eyes with him.

She smirked, motioning towards him. "Give me your keys." The wash of power came over her without much realization on her part, and after a few moments of a stare down with her breasts pressed up against the cold metal - the guard obliged. The ring was full of them, so she tried again.

"Which one for his cuffs?" The guard, like a zombie, pointed. "Thank you," She purred. "Now you go on and find something else to do, hm?"

When the spell was broken, Sarah stumbled back and stared at the keys. She didn't have much time to think of what had just happened...but it had been really strange. And now, she had the keys in her hands.

She turned to look at the Goblin King - and he was smiling in his apparent sleep.

* * *

Jareth was heavy. Sarah wouldn't have guessed it by how he looked, as he appeared to have lost a great deal of weight - but he was dead weight and it was kind of like shouldering a non-compliant, overlarge feline. He sometimes squirmed and shifted his weight in a way that was difficult to shoulder, and Sarah found herself warning him a few times...just like she might with an overlarge feline.

He seemed to regain himself, little by little - the longer the cuffs were off, but he wasn't completely himself. Sarah noticed with a little concern that the area where the cuffs had been were surrounded by silvery veins on his very pale skin - almost as if the iron had gotten into his blood.

The castle was a winding labyrinthine structure, and though it didn't surprise Sarah, it certainly irritated her. She didn't know where to go, and her map was possibly dying of iron poisoning. There were many close calls when she had to shuffle him into a dark corner to get them out of the way of prying eyes, but the castle seemed quiet.

Finally, she settled him in a place that seemed completely out of the way - an 'oubliette' of sorts, as it was almost as if the place was completely forgotten. She didn't know why she'd decided to help him, or even how, but she figured he might be her only hope to get out of this place and back home. Hope was a little dampened by the fact that he didn't seem to know why she'd even ended up here, but...he was the Goblin King, right? Unless he died, she might be able to convince him to help her figure it out.

She propped him up against one of the walls and started to shut the door, but Jareth lifted up a slender finger and warned against it.

"I wouldn't do that," He said quietly.

She stopped in her motions and merely closed the door enough to cut them off from obvious view, leaning down in front of the Fae prince and grasping his hands gently to have a look. She examined the wounds, frowning a bit. She had honestly thought they would begin to improve once she got the iron off of him, but that didn't appear to be the case.

"Sarah," His tone the same as it ever was. His eyes bore holes into as she twisted his wrists around, causing her face to feel hot. "That hurts."

"Sorry." She muttered. "Do you have a plan?"

"No, I do not," He said, his voice deep and quiet - head leaning into her without thought. "I imagine getting out of here would be a good first step, but..."

"Who is that man?"

"Wasn't it obvious? He's my brother."

* * *

I've had this done for awhile but was being a dweeb. Send me your comments/support/ideas!


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